User:Wolfdog/sandbox2

mid-1700s American vowels)

Lexical set and phoneme	Phone
THOUGHT /ɔː/	ɔː~ɒː
LOT /ɒ/ incl. of, from ⟨a⟩ in want, wasp, what, etc.	ɔ~ɒ
	æ
TRAP /æ/ PALM /ɑː/
FACE /eɪ/	ɛː→eː
DRESS /ɛ/	ɛ
FLEECE /iː/	iː
KIT /ɪ/	ɪ
HAPPY /i/
PRICE /aɪ/	əi~ʌi
CHOICE /ɔɪ/	ɒi~ɔi
GOAT /oʊ/ incl. to	oː→oʊ
MOUTH /aʊ/	ʌu~ɔu
GOOSE /uː/ incl. too, into	uː~u
FOOT /ʊ/
STRUT /ʌ/	ɤ̞~ʌ
FORCE /oʊr/	o(ː)ɹ
NORTH /ɔːr/	ɒɹ~ɔɹ
NURSE /ɜːr/ LETTER /ər/	ɤ̞ɹ~ʌɹ
MARRY /ær/ START //	æɹ
SQUARE /ɛər/ incl. are?	ɛːɹ
NEAR /ɪər/	ɛːɹ~ɪɹ

Continued merger discussion after 24 December 2016

Studies suggest (some flat-out confirm) that "Ozark English" and "Appalachian English" are the same dialect; both dialects may be declining, based on a lack of Ozark-focused dialect research since the middle of the 1900s, as well as the recent classification of both Ozark and (especially) Appalachian English under the Southern dialect by the 2006 Atlas of North American English. The sources that don't directly equate the two do consistently highlight their similarities, yet never their differences. The idea of merging the two articles has never happened. In a previous merger discussion, one user opposed without further discussion (even when asked to elucidate), one user brought up a single argument I feel I countered, and one user supported without further discussion. No full discussion was ever had over the course of maybe 9 months, though I found and included later evidence to bolster my points. Here's the evidence:

• The 1948 article "Southern Mountain Dialect", for example, refers to an Appalachian-Ozark variety as a single dialect with as much slight internal variation as any dialect: "Though fairly consistent in the isolated districts (with which we are mainly concerned), the dialect may vary slightly with the locality, and even from family to family." It lists "four main divisions" geographically, which include "the Blue Ridge of Virginia and West Virginia, the Great Smokies of Tennessee and North Carolina, the Cumberlands of Kentucky and Tennessee [all three constituting the Appalachian region], and the Ozarks of Arkansas and southern Missouri" [p. 46]). This passage unifies Appalachian and Ozark English.
• Here is what the more recent research that I could find has to say on Ozark English:
  • ANAE (2006) mentions the term "Ozark(s)" only twice:
    • Referring to the card-cord merger, "while the general merger has disappeared in most of the Appalachian–Ozarkian region, the function words or and for often remain lower and fronter (closer to /ahr/) than the rest of the /ohr/ class, which has merged with /ohr/" (277). This passage unifies Appalachian and Ozark English.
    • "The area of the South in which the Southern Shift is most developed is defined as the Inland South... an Appalachian region extending across eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina and Northern Alabama.... This region was populated by a settlement stream... most often identified by cultural geographers as the Upland South.... Secondary concentrations of Upland South settlement are the product of further migration to the Ozarks and to east Texas. Map 18.9 indicated that the strongest development of Southern States phonology is found somewhat to the west of this area" (261-2). This passage unifies Appalachian and Ozark English.
    • Although the ANAE never again mentions the Ozarks, it shows that region to be located on the borderline between the Southern and Midland dialects, with the biggest city in the area, Springfield, Missouri, firmly documented as Southern. Knoxville, Asheville, and Chattanooga in Appalachia are all firmly documented as Southern. This unifies Appalachian and Ozark English. Also, no findings of the ANAE show the Ozarks to be a glaring sub-regional exception to the Southern (or, possibly, Midland) dialect region. If Springfield = Claim B.
  • John C. Wells' (1982) Accents of English lists "Ozarks" in the index with a "see also 'southern mountain'". Wells clearly centers "southern mountain" speech on Appalachian and "upland states", which "form a transition zone between the south and midland dialect areas; their southern mountain speech is classified as south midland by Kurath, but popularly regarded as a variety of southern accent" (527). This passage unifies Appalachian and Ozark English.
  • "Variation and Change in Geographically Isolated Communities: Appalachian English and Ozark English" (1984), a 200-page comparative study, does initially speak of Appalachian and Ozark English as two different dialects or "varieties", yes, but the entire goal of the study is to unearth more about the relationships between the two. The conclusion states that the study considered "the descriptive detail of the [grammatical] structures we have examined, [and] the frequency with which the various structures are used" (p. 235). The findings of the study: "that there are no descriptive differences in the representative structures we have examined here" (p. 235) and then: "the frequency relationships between the varieties also shows fairly close parallels, with some non-significant differences" (p. 235). This passage unifies Appalachian and Ozark English.
  • World Englishes (2013) plainly says "The Ozark Mountains can be seen as an extension of the Appalachian English dialect" (48). This passage unifies Appalachian and Ozark English. Wolfdog (talk) 05:54, 26 December 2016 (UTC)